WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) continues to be a preferred wireless networking standard for many homes, offices, and other relatively close-proximity environments. Over the years, WiFi standards have evolved to provide improvements in data throughput, reliability, and security. The evolving WiFi standards continue to demand increasing complexity from radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) used for transmission of WiFi signals. For example, IEEE 802.11ac, one of the latest iterations of the WiFi standard currently deployed, requires an RF integrated circuit (RFIC) capable of transmitting signals about a relatively wide bandwidth (up to 160 MHz), which places stringent requirements on the linearity of one or more RF power amplifiers (PAs) used in the RFIC.
Conventionally, Silicon (Si) or Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) RFICs have been preferred for the transmission of WiFi signals. Although these conventional RFICs have provided adequate performance when used with many previous iterations of the WiFi standard, they are not optimally suited for the latest generation of WiFi standards, such as IEEE 802.11ac. Using conventional RFICs for transmission of WiFi signals according to the latest standards may result in significant losses in the efficiency of the RFIC. Further, conventional RFICs are limited in their output power, thereby restricting the distance over which WiFi signals can be transmitted.
Current demand to expand WiFi coverage areas into large spaces and outdoor environments has prompted a need for RFICs for transmission of WiFi signals with greater output power. For example, in an attempt to fill coverage gaps in many cellular service networks and offload network resources, high-power WiFi transmitters may be used together with cellular access points to provide a continuous coverage area. In the future, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) “small cells” are expected to be deployed, which include a combination of LTE transmitters and WiFi transmitters to fill service coverage gaps in otherwise problematic areas. Accordingly, there is a need for an RFIC for the transmission of WiFi signals with an improved efficiency and output power.